Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"W |  | B75 5JJ |
The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) mast?
Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Sutton Coldfield transmitter broadcast?
If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter?
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest (201°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)
Are there any self-help relays?
| Burton (shobnall) | Transposer | 1 km W Burton-on-Trent | 60 homes |
| Coalville | Transposer | 18 km NW Leicester | 600 homes |
| Solihull | Transposer | Land Rover building | 400 homes |
How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 7 Mar 2018 | ||||
| VHF | B E T | B E T | B E T | B E K T | W T | ||||
| C4 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C33 | com7 | ||||||||
| C35 | com8 | ||||||||
| C36 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C39 | +ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C40 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C42 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C43 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C45 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C46 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C48 | _local | ||||||||
| C50tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C51tv_off | LB | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_off |
tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 7 Sep 11 and 21 Sep 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 1000kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 200kW | |
| com7 | (-10.5dB) 89.2kW | |
| com8 | (-10.7dB) 86kW | |
| LB | (-20dB) 10kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-21dB) 8kW |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area
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Tuesday, 31 January 2012
J
jb3811:19 PM
barry lloyd: Firstly, as your query concerns a reception issue then you really have to state your location and with this preferably in the form of a post code for accuracy, as this would not only enable the freeview signal strength expected at your location to be assessed but also details the transmitting station that covers your area.
Secondly, maybe you could indicate the model number of the PVR in question, as there is a number of these devices in existence that has problems dealing with certain characteristics concerning the transmitting channels being used by some stations.
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Saturday, 18 February 2012
D
David12:57 PM
During the recent cold spell, I again had trouble receiving just one of the Muxes (COM6) in Great Barr Birmingham.
This is exactly as before the power-up when the signals were low. Now they are high the problem persists, on different Muxes, exactly as I predicted they would do, it is interference from more distant broadcast sites is all that has changed.
As I have said before, no matter how well-spread the channel frequencies are around the country, those using the same frequency will interfere at some times during the year. The whole concept of freeview has this inglorious fault that would never have occurred if the powers-that-be had ignored the whole idea ofground-based broadcast and gone for renting a satellite.
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Sunday, 19 February 2012
J
jb385:31 PM
Birmingham
David: Fully appreciating and up to a point agreeing with the comments made by yourself regarding Freeview reception, as although being extremely good in a high percentage of areas it will however never have the reliability of Freesat, basically because of it (Freeview) being terrestrial based thereby being open to suffer from interference from a variety of sources, many of totally out with the control of the user.
Freesat reception on the other hand being almost perfect for about 99.9% of the time because of its signal being much less vulnerable to being interfered with, and with about the only thing that can being a really heavy thundery downpour. But the reason for my posting is more from a curiosity angle as on checking back "some" of your previous postings and the problems mentioned therein, its the content of your most recent December posting that has made me curious as to what form of aerial system you are using?
My reason for asking being, that I notice you appear to be located at only about 5 / 7 miles away from the massively high powered Sutton Coldfield transmitter, meaning that unless your location is severely screened from the mast in some way then this type situation just invites signal overloading problems to be experienced in the receiving equipment being used "if" its coupled to an aerial system that just a little too efficient, this effect being made worse if the TV / boxes tuner is of the better and more sensitive type.
I say this based on your comment about the "cheepo" third box working perfectly where the more expensive types didn't, this somewhat suggesting that the signal overloading problem referred to may well be applying in your case, as these less costly boxes do not generally have sensitive tuners and as such much less prone to signal overloading problems, this fact making them "appear" as being better.
I do also realise that your entire area is suggestive of one where difficulties with reception is likely to be in evidence, basically because if it wasn't then there wouldn't be the necessity for the area to be covered by so many relays with 6 being seen within 6 miles, one of virtually next door to the test code used of B43 5EL.
Another thing you have to keep in mind is that any signal received slightly over the top power wise can give "exactly" the same symptoms to one on the weak side, and which also in many cases can result in a false indication of low been seen when strength checking, another point being that although muxes are all located on the same mast (albeit at different heights) its not necessarily the case that they will all be received at anywhere near the same level even although their rated powers might well be the same, but a lot of the problems I see mentioned are ones usually always associated with signal strengths of a magnitude that are on the point of causing instability in a receivers tuner.
Its just that at 6 miles or so away from Sutton Coldfield the signal should be so strong to the extent of being immune to a certain extent from interference originating from distant stations, and so I would be interested in knowing details about your aerial set up, as well as knowing if you can receive a workable signal if you tried a test using a set top aerial of the non amplified type?
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jb38's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 20 February 2012
D
David1:45 PM
jb38 thank you for your thoughtful reply. You are quite right, despite being 6-7 miles from Sutton Coldfield, there is no line-of-site for me. I am in a dip, and what may be worse, there are a line of power pylons marching away over the hill in direct line towards the SC mast.
All my neighbours have aerials pointing in several directions (as you would guess) and many had aerial upgrades mounted some 15-20 feet above their roofs during the pre-switchover period, but I did not. My wide-band aerial is only about 2-3 feet above the roofline, and gave good reception except during Winter months, when 1, sometimes 2 muxes would break up.
After switchover, nothing much changed except the digibox readings went up from roughly 20-30% level to roughly 70-85 % level. Reception is just as before, generally very good, with occasional lack of picture on just one mux and that only during the coldest periods only.
Interestingly, one can watch the 'quality' reading when a channel is breaking up, and can see it slowly pulsing over a few seconds in a manner that is possibly symptomatic of a distant signal at the same frequency drifting in and out of phase.
I will try to test using just a set-top aerial as you suggest. My aerial feeds three sets, and all I have tried so far is a 12db attenuator before the better sets, which made no difference at all.
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Wednesday, 22 February 2012
S
Steve6:03 PM
I experienced problems with my freeview reception during this period and no answers were forthcoming and always was the customers fault?.... This is taken from an ofcom report into 4G and how it will cause problems with peoples TV pictures, Appears Arqiva were doing tests from Lichfield transmitter for 4G and although may or may not have been the problem, it is interesting people in Tamworth were having so many problems with freeview during this period
from Field Trial paragraph 4.32 onwards
http://stakeholders.ofcom….pdf
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Wednesday, 14 March 2012
J
Just Me10:19 PM
Burton-on-trent
Hi, I'm also getting problems with E4+1, Dave, Really, Challenge and Pick tv. I have a Sharp flatscreen with built in freeview (Sorry, unsure about the model number). I have tried retuning and everythig else I can think of to no avail. The sound is virtually non existent and the picture is very blocky and jumpy. I live in Burton on Trent. My aerial is on the roof. Have had no previous problems, postcode is DE13 0RE.
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Just's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mark Fletcher10:47 PM
Halifax
Just Me,Burton on Trent.I would look up inversion effect as the atmospherics due to this new high pressure is playing havoc with the frequencies and not a transmitter fault as such !
| link to this comment |
Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 18 March 2012
J
Joe2:45 PM
Stafford
Hi guys, does anyone know what the network id is for Sutton Coldfield? (for manual dvb equipment)
Thanks,
J
| link to this comment |
Joe's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 19 March 2012
A
Andy10:43 AM
Wigan
The suuton coldfield tx identifies itself as (west midlands).
Andy
| link to this comment |
Andy's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 23 March 2012
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